Boris Johnson declared that “things are changing” in Saudi Arabia on human rights despite the execution of three men as he arrived for talks on oil.
The prime minister visited the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia yesterday as he urged oil-rich countries to increase production so the West could “wean itself off” Russian fossil fuels.
He held a meeting lasting one hour and 45 minutes with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has largely been shunned by the West after America accused him of ordering the murder of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
The three men who were executed were said to be murderers. On Saturday 81 men were executed for charges ranging from terrorism to the holding of “deviant beliefs”.
Questioned about the spate of executions, Johnson said: “I always raise human rights issues, as British prime ministers before me have done time after time.
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“It’s best if the details of those conversations are kept private, they’re more effective that way. But I think what you can also see is that — and I think that people who come to Saudi Arabia would testify this — in spite of that news you’ve referred to today, things are changing in Saudi Arabia. We want to see them continue to change and that’s why we see value in engaging with Saudi Arabia and why we see value in the partnership.”
Asked whether he had expressed his displeasure at human rights abuses, Johnson said: “I expressed the longstanding view of the UK government, as you would expect.”
Johnson said of the meeting: “I think there’s certainly an understanding that . . . there’s an interest for Saudi Arabia, for all oil-producing and exporting countries, in making sure that the global economy is not damaged by the current spikes, that we don’t get the kind of inflation that we saw in the 1970s, we don’t see the stagflation. So it was a very productive conversation.”
Asked if this meant an agreement had been reached, he said: “I think you need to talk to the Saudis about that, but I think there was an understanding of the need to ensure stability in global oil markets and gas markets and the need to avoid damaging price spikes.
“And a strong global economy, a strong UK economy, which we’ve got, continuing with a strong UK economy, is very much in the interests of the oil-producing countries as well.”
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Johnson has said he will bring forward an energy strategy next week that would focus more on renewable and nuclear energy, hydrocarbons and the sourcing of fossil fuels from outside Russia. He is likely to face continued questions about the nature of the regimes from which the UK may now import fuel.
Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, accused Johnson of merely going “cap in hand from dictator to dictator”. He added: “Saying we are not going to rely on Russia and then going to Saudi Arabia is not an energy strategy.”
After the three executions, Maya Foa, the director of the charity Reprieve, said: “Carrying out these executions while the leader of a western power is on Saudi soil was a provocative act, designed to flaunt the crown prince’s power and impunity to the world. It is not acceptable to cite Russia’s war crimes to try to justify trading blood for oil elsewhere. It shows the world we will apply double standards for our convenience.”
Prince Mohammed declined to take a call from President Biden last week in a sign of continued friction with America over the Khashoggi murder. The journalist, who wrote for The Washington Post, was dismembered in his country’s consulate in Istanbul by a hit squad.
Johnson hopes his personal relationship with Mohammed, 36, could result in an agreement on oil. He said that in his meeting they talked about “what we can do to stabilise oil prices, to fight inflation, to help consumers, to help people at the gas pumps, at the petrol pumps, and a lot of agreement that it is important to avoid inflation, to avoid the damaging economic consequences, agreement that we need to work together to bring peace to Ukraine”.
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Michelle Bachelet, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said that just over half of the 81 men executed on Saturday were Saudi Shia Muslims who had taken part in anti-government protests a decade ago. Some were executed after trials that failed to meet guarantees of due process, she added.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE have the capacity to produce more oil but have been unwilling to change course from a deal forged with Russia during the pandemic, which forced down demand. The Opec+ agreement, spearheaded by Saudi Arabia and Russia, calls for production levels to increase gradually each month as economies recover but did not account for the impact of the war in Ukraine.
The US sent two officials to Riyadh last month. In a call with Biden before the visit, King Salman, the crown prince’s father, emphasised the importance of maintaining the deal, according to Saudi reports.
